IWA SET FOR STRIKE arta tll! peti dd or ott Satin) Volume 16, No. 27 <=" a FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1957 VANCOUVER, B.C. lO¢ Authorised as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa Vancouver Labor Council, Which decided some months ago that it would run three Candidates in the civic election this year, has endorsed a labor Platform which its nominees Will advance in December. Delegates at Tuesday’s VLC Meeting approved the follow- ig program presented by Bill Black of the political educa- tion committee: @ Five years’ residence or Ownership of propery to qual- ify for civic office. @ A _ metropolitan govern- Ment to include the Lower Mainland and cover pollution, fire, sewage, water, parks, po- lice and roads. ® Revision of municipal tax- ation and assessment laws. ®@ Public ownership of all Public utilities, ® City to maintain and op- €raté the civic airport. @ A modern plan for roads and highways to end_ bottle- necks and a better deal from Senior governments on arter- lal highways. Labor Council sets civic election aims @ A low - rental housing scheme for senior citizens and those in low-income brackets. ‘ @ A program of slum clear- ance and rehabilitation. @ Enlargement of recrea- tional facilities and park de- velopment. @ City to enact a bylaw stipulating union wages on all city contracts and service. * What about the ‘buccaneers’ ? ..What is Prime Minister John Diefenbaker going to do about the U.S. oil companies hte denounced as “buccaneers” a few months ago? Natural gas has still to come through the Trans-Can- ada pipeline, but investors have already made an esti- mated stock profit of $300,- 691,246. x When 34,000 Coast woodworkers walk off the job at 10 a.m. Friday this week, following a complete breakdown of last-ditch negotiations with operators Wed- nesday, close to 40,000 workers will be marching on picket lines in British Colum- bia. Some 5,500 salmon net fishermen are now in their second week of action, although a stalemate in the fish price strike was broken Wednesday morning when the fishing companies proposed a renewal of price negotiations. Also on strike ‘are city electricians, workers at Sim- mons Mattress and warehouse- men at Canada Roof Pro- ducts. Ready to strike are 11,000 provincial government em- ployees, who turned thumbs down on a government propo- sal for a six percent wage in- crease by voting 89.2 percent in favor of strike action. B.C. Government Employ- ees Association is giving Prem- ier W.A.C. Bennett a week to agree to the setting up of a board of arbitration to deal with matters affecting wages and working conditions which cannot be agreed upon by both parties, If the premier fails to act, a strike deadline will be announced. Breakdown of talks in lum- ber followed a last-minute re- newal of negotiations between operators and the IWA brought about by intervention of Prem- ier Bennett. But the talks proved fruitless, and the un- ion set Friday as a_ strike deadline. Vancouver Labor Council at its Tuesday meeting this week reiterated its pledge of full support to the IWA and all unions which have been forced — and are being forc- ed — to take strike action to win wage demands. Strike votes have been taken by nurses in Penticton and New Westminster. Hospital employees are also determined to strike to win pay hikes this summer if hos- pital boards continue to re- ject conciliation board recom- mendations. Several strike votes have been taken and others are in the offing. strike Doukhobor children beaten, say letters A claim that “punishment and beating NELSON, B.C. of Doukhobor children held in New Denver is continuing” was made here this week by members of a Sons of Freedom committee seek- ing release of the children. Letters from children confined at New Denver gave details of the punishment meted out recently when the children staged a protest in the gym and refused to dance for a group of visitors. The child- ren were sent to bed, some were strapped and the next visiting day with their par- ents was. cancelled. One of the girls wrote that after playing volleyball some of the girls were taking show- ers when they were ordered to return to the gym and give a dance performance for the visitors. See LETTERS Continued on back page EE muters. a H : - nit} , 4 | — j// : OM - = TS: pi? se HG = ee X 4 ie hg CRE “Your tolls are in the way.” NEWS ITEM: Leading Social Crediters are protest- ing Premier W. A. C. Bennett’s statement at the opening of-Oak Street Bridge last Saturday that tolls would be removed when the bridge is paid for in 12% years. They say this is contrary te their under- standing of government policy to transfer the tolls to Deas Island Tunnel when it is completed in 1959. Bridge tolls place a new charge on Richmond com- LABOR STANDS FIRM N WAGE DEMANDS